Update Alt and Dist.

[Pablo]

Hi Guys! To update a 240z to electronic ign. which is the best dist. to use for road race purpose? Today I got the Alt. out of a 280 turbo, its a Hitache with the edge square, after I had it out I saw a different 280 with rounded edges and a diode behind. Is there one more reliable than the other or about the same? Do I need that diode?

Thanks: Pablo

[beandip]

I don't know by your description what you have or talking of. The Dists. that you should look for are '79 through '83 Manual is what I have been told to find. Which I have. I do not know if the advance curve for a turbo is different or not. I have a non turbo and do not know any one with turbo part to compare. The module on the side of the dist. on the '79--'80 will show 12 80 marked on it . This is the correct one. If you use the other type you must change the vacuum advance pot and add an additional vacuum line to manifold vacuum . Plus the addition of a retard limiter. Which must be fabricated by you . Simple to do, by the way. If you or any one is going to do this mod of a ZX ignition , be sure to get the part the dist bolts to , that attaches to the block. The 240 part will not work with this new dist. Gary:rambo:

[Pablo]

Thanks Gary! I'll take my time and wait till I find the 12 80. Now I have the Allison electronic convertion which been working ok and MSD, I'm told with the Nissan distributor should be better and less items in eng. comp. Both ZX's that I saw at the junkjard the dist. were gone, there are a few more yard I'll ck during the week. the alternator I bought the front and back edges were straight compared to the other one I saw afterward the frt and back edges in the housing they were rounded off and possible a smaller alt. They are both Hitachi I'm taking this one to the shop to get tested before installing, I have 30 day to exchage it if bad or the other one would be a more reliable one

[Pete 73 240Z]

I finally got my car running after a week of parts swapping. Put a rebuilt 280ZX motor in my car with many mods but couldn't get it to run. I had swapped it over to electronic distributor from 82 280ZX had it all wired right. Thought it was bad distributor and swapped to another I had same problem. I then bought a rebuilt one from Autozone still same problem. My problem was I had the plug wires running clockwise instead of counter clockwise on distributor. I was looking at a diagram in a tech book showing crank positions which I misunderstood as distributor rotation because of the way it was drawn. Anyway a friend came over and we turned over the car without the cap on distributor and I saw the problem right away. Car runs great now still needs fine tuning. Put alot of nice improvements while looking for my problem. New coil, ignition modules, fuel pump and wiring. Hows that for wasting time.

[Pablo]

Wow thanks for saving time to a fellow Z'err when I get to it!

[DoubleXL240Z]

Pablo,

What class of road racing are you doing? It might not be a legal upgrade to switch out dist.( SCCA being one of them), though pointless conversions are legal in the stock housing. Just thought I'd throw that out before you bought more parts!!

[Pablo]

Thanks I'm getting back to ITS racing with SCCA. They now allow the alt swap. the distributorswapp is not legal but I just thought of possibly swapping guts if possible. now I have the Allison points convertion. It works good but always looking for different ideas.